"Intergalactic" is a Grammy

Grammy Award

A Grammy Award — or Grammy — is an accolade by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences of the United States to recognize outstanding achievement in the music industry...

-winning song by American hip-hop group the Beastie Boys

Beastie Boys

Beastie Boys are an American hip hop trio from New York City. The group consists of Mike D who plays the drums, MCA who plays the bass, and Ad-Rock who plays the guitar....

, released as the first single from their fifth studio album Hello Nasty

Hello Nasty

Hello Nasty is the fifth studio album by the Beastie Boys. It was released on July 14, 1998 via Capitol Records and sold 681,000 copies in its first week, debuting at #1 on the Billboard 200 album sales chart...

on May 12, 1998.

The single hit #28 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100

Billboard Hot 100

The Billboard Hot 100 is the United States music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by Billboard magazine. Chart rankings are based on radio play and sales; the tracking-week for sales begins on Monday and ends on Sunday, while the radio play tracking-week runs from Wednesday...

 charts, making it the band's third Top 40 single there. It also reached #5 on the UK Singles Chart

UK Singles Chart

The UK Singles Chart is compiled by The Official Charts Company on behalf of the British record-industry. The full chart contains the top selling 200 singles in the United Kingdom based upon combined record sales and download numbers, though some media outlets only list the Top 40 or the Top 75 ...

, where it remains to be the band's biggest hit in the country.

The song received a Grammy Award for Best Rap Performance by a Duo or Group

Grammy Award for Best Rap Performance by a Duo or Group

The Grammy Award for Best Rap Performance by a Duo or Group was awarded between 1991 and 2011, alongside the Grammy Award for Best Rap Solo Performance. Previously a single award was presented for Best Rap Performance....

 in 1999.

CD single 1

1. "Intergalactic" (Album version) - 3:33
2. "Hail Sagan (Special K)" - 4:06
3. "Intergalactic" (Prisoners of Technology Mix) - 5:46
4. "Intergalactic" (Fuzzy Logic Re-Mix) - 3:47

CD single 2

1. "Intergalactic" (Album version) - 3:32
2. "Intergalactic" (Remix No. 1) - 3:54
3. "Intergalactic" (Remix No. 2) 4:02
4. "Intergalactic" (Remix No. 1 Instrumental) - 3:56
5. "Intergalactic" (Remix No. 2 Instrumental) - 3:59

Composition

The song samples the theme music for the 1985 film The Toxic Avenger

The Toxic Avenger

The Toxic Avenger is a 1984 comedy horror film released by Troma Entertainment, known for producing low budget B-movies with campy concepts. Virtually ignored upon its first release, The Toxic Avenger caught on with filmgoers after a long and successful midnight movie engagement at the famed...

, as adapted from Rimsky-Korsakov's arrangement of Mussorgsky

Modest Mussorgsky

Modest Petrovich Mussorgsky was a Russian composer, one of the group known as 'The Five'. He was an innovator of Russian music in the romantic period...

's A Night on Bald Mountain

Night on Bald Mountain

Night on Bald Mountain is a composition by Modest Mussorgsky that exists in, at least, two versions—a seldom performed 1867 version or a later and very popular "fantasy for orchestra" arranged by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, A Night on the Bare Mountain , based on the vocal score of the "Dream Vision...

. The sound effect sample originates from the sound the Resonator makes in the 1986 film From Beyond

From Beyond

From Beyond may refer to:*"From Beyond" , a 1934 story by H. P. Lovecraft*From Beyond , a 1986 film based on the Lovecraft story*From Beyond , a 1991 album by Massacre...

. Elements of Les Baxter

Les Baxter

Les Baxter was an American musician and composer.Baxter studied piano at the Detroit Conservatory before moving to Los Angeles for further studies at Pepperdine College. Abandoning a concert career as a pianist, he turned to popular music as a singer...

's rendition of Prelude in C# Minor

Prelude in C-sharp minor (Rachmaninoff)

Prelude in C-sharp minor , Op. 3, No. 2, is one of Sergei Rachmaninoff's most famous compositions. It is a ternary prelude in C-sharp minor, 62 measures long, and part of a set of five pieces entitled Morceaux de Fantaisie....

as composed by Rachmaninoff

Sergei Rachmaninoff

Sergei Vasilievich Rachmaninoff was a Russian composer, pianist, and conductor. Rachmaninoff is widely considered one of the finest pianists of his day and, as a composer, one of the last great representatives of Romanticism in Russian classical music...

 are also used during the verses, and the song also contains elements of the Jazz Crusaders album Powerhouse. The closing "Do it!" is sampled from the 1971 Stovall Sisters song "Hang on in There". A Shout-out to Mario Caldato (Mario C), the single's producer, is given in the song. The end of the song features Biz Markie

Biz Markie

Marcel Theo Hall better known by his stage name, Biz Markie, is an American rapper, beatboxer, DJ, comedian, singer, reality television personality, and commercial spokesperson. He is best known for his single "Just a Friend", an American Top 10 hit in 1989...

 doing a freestyle rap

Freestyle rap

Freestyle rap commonly refers to rap lyrics which are improvised through a acapella or with instrumental beats, i.e. performed with no previously composed lyrics, or "off the top of the head"...

.

Music video

The "Intergalactic" video was made in late June 1998. It revolves around a giant robot causing destruction by fighting a giant octopus-headed creature (possibly Cthulhu

Cthulhu

Cthulhu is a fictional character that first appeared in the short story "The Call of Cthulhu", published in the pulp magazine Weird Tales in 1928. The character was created by writer H. P...

) in a city while popping

Popping (dance)

Popping is a street dance and one of the original funk styles that came from California during the 1960s-70s. It is based on the technique of quickly contracting and relaxing muscles to cause a jerk in the dancer's body, referred to as a pop or a hit...

, a parody of Japanese Kaiju

Kaiju

is a Japanese word that means "strange beast," but often translated in English as "monster". Specifically, it is used to refer to a genre of tokusatsu entertainment....

 films (specifically the series finale of Johnny Sokko and his Flying Robot

Giant Robo (tokusatsu)

, is a manga and tokusatsu series created by Mitsuteru Yokoyama. It is similar to his famous Tetsujin 28-go , though Giant Robo has more fantastic elements....

). Various scenes are filmed in the Shibuya

Shibuya Station

is a train station located in Shibuya, Tokyo, Japan. With 2.4 million passengers on an average weekday in 2004, it is the fourth-busiest commuter rail station in Japan handling a large amount of commuter traffic between the center city and suburbs to the south and west.-JR East:*Saikyō Line /...

 and Shinjuku

Shinjuku Station

is a train station located in Shinjuku and Shibuya wards in Tokyo, Japan.Serving as the main connecting hub for rail traffic between central Tokyo and its western suburbs on inter-city rail, commuter rail and metro lines, the station was used by an average of 3.64 million people per day in 2007,...

 train stations in Tokyo, Japan in which the band wears the bright uniforms of (Koji) Japanese street construction workers. The video was a regular on Total Request Live

Total Request Live

Total Request Live is a television series on MTV that featured popular music videos. TRL was MTV's prime outlet for music videos as the network continues to concentrate on reality-based programming. In addition to music videos, TRL featured daily guests...

and won the award for Best Hip-Hop Video

MTV Video Music Award for Best Hip-Hop Video

The MTV Video Music Award for Best Hip-Hop Video was first given out at the 1999 MTV Video Music Awards. The award, according to MTV, was originally intended for hip-hop-inspired songs, not necessarily actual hip-hop music videos . This explains the recognition of non-hip-hop songs such as "Thong...

 at the 1999 MTV Video Music Awards

1999 MTV Video Music Awards

The 1999 MTV Video Music Awards aired live on September 9, 1999, honoring the best music videos from June 13, 1998, to June 11, 1999. The show was hosted by Chris Rock at Metropolitan Opera House in New York City....

. They performed "Three MC's and One DJ" and "Intergalactic" at the 1998 MTV Video Music Awards

1998 MTV Video Music Awards

The 1998 MTV Video Music Awards aired live on September 10, 1998, honoring the best music videos from the previous year. The show was hosted by Ben Stiller at Gibson Amphitheatre in Los Angeles....

. It was directed by MCA under the pseudonym of Nathanial Hornblower.

The music video also somewhat parodies Japanese sentai

Sentai

in Japanese language is a word for a military unit and may be literally translated as "squadron", "task force", "group" or "wing". The terms "regiment" and "flotilla", while sometimes used as translations of Sentai, are also used to refer to larger formations....

 shows, which are the basis for Power Rangers

Power Rangers

Power Rangers is a long-running American entertainment and merchandising franchise built around a live action children's television series featuring teams of costumed heroes...

.

In some versions of the video, the introduction is a sample

Sampling (music)

In music, sampling is the act of taking a portion, or sample, of one sound recording and reusing it as an instrument or a different sound recording of a song or piece. Sampling was originally developed by experimental musicians working with musique concrète and electroacoustic music, who physically...

 of Le Sacre du Printemps by Igor Stravinsky

Igor Stravinsky

Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky ; 6 April 1971) was a Russian, later naturalized French, and then naturalized American composer, pianist, and conductor....

.

The video ranked #64 on MuchMusic

MuchMusic

MuchMusic is a Canadian English language Category A specialty channel owned by Bell Media. MuchMusic is dedicated to music-related programs, pop and youth culture.-History:...

's 100 Best Videos.

In other media

The song is featured on the Futurama

Futurama

Futurama is an American animated science fiction sitcom created by Matt Groening and developed by Groening and David X. Cohen for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series follows the adventures of a late 20th-century New York City pizza delivery boy, Philip J...

episode "Hell Is Other Robots

Hell Is Other Robots

"Hell Is Other Robots" is the ninth episode of Futurama. It originally aired in North America on May 18, 1999, as the season finale of the first season. The episode was written by Eric Kaplan and directed by Rich Moore. Guest stars in this episode include the Beastie Boys as themselves and Dan...

", in which the members of the band also guest-starred. A part of the song was featured in "Weird Al" Yankovic

"Weird Al" Yankovic

Alfred Matthew "Weird Al" Yankovic is an American singer-songwriter, music producer, accordionist, actor, comedian, writer, satirist, and parodist. Yankovic is known for his humorous songs that make light of popular culture and that often parody specific songs by contemporary musical acts...

's polka, "Polka Power!", from the album Running with Scissors

Running with Scissors (album)

Running with Scissors is the 10th studio album by "Weird Al" Yankovic, released on June 29, 1999. The album contains the hit single "The Saga Begins", a parody of Don McLean's song "American Pie".-Details:...

. The song name is a cheat code to unlock MCA in the game Tony Hawk's Proving Ground

Tony Hawk's Proving Ground

Tony Hawk's Proving Ground is a video game developed by Neversoft for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 video game consoles; by Page 44 Studios for the PlayStation 2 and Wii; and by Vicarious Visions for the Nintendo DS...

, which their song "The Electric Worm

The Electric Worm

"The Electric Worm" is a song by American hip hop group the Beastie Boys, released as the first single from their instrumental album The Mix-Up.The B-side of the single is "Suco de Tangerina", which is also on the album....

" is featured in. The song is featured in the video game DJ Hero

DJ Hero

DJ Hero is a music video game, developed by FreeStyleGames and published by Activision as a rhythm game spin-off of the Guitar Hero franchise. It was released on October 27, 2009 in North America and on October 29, 2009 in Europe...

. In the multiplayer option of Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2, a game mode exists called "Sabotage". If one successfully completes 20 rounds of this game mode, you are rewarded with the title "Intergalactic", a reference to this song; the game mode is also a reference to another Beastie Boys song, "Sabotage

Sabotage (song)

"Sabotage" is a song by American hip-hop group Beastie Boys, released as the first single from their fourth studio album Ill Communication....

". The song appears in the 2010 film Diary of a Wimpy Kid

Diary of a Wimpy Kid (film)

Diary of a Wimpy Kid is a 2010 American comedy film directed by Thor Freudenthal and based on Jeff Kinney's book of the same name. The film was released on March 19, 2010. It was released on DVD, iTunes, and Blu-ray on August 3, 2010.-Plot:...

during the mother-son dance scene.

Charts

Chart (1998)	Peak position
Australian Singles Chart ARIA Charts The ARIA charts are the main Australian music sales charts, issued weekly by the Australian Recording Industry Association. The charts are a record of the highest selling singles and albums in various genres in Australia. ARIA commenced compiling its own charts in-house from the week ending 26 June...	21
Austrian Singles Chart Ö3 Austria Top 40 Ö3 Austria Top 40 is the name of the official Austrian singles chart, as well as the radio show which presents it, aired Fridays on Hitradio Ö3. The show presents the Austrian singles, ringtones and downloads chart. It premiered on 26 November 1968 as Disc Parade and was presented by Ernst Grissemann...	26
Belgian Singles Chart Ultratop 50 Ultratop 50 singles, often just Ultratop 50, is the weekly chart of fifty best-selling singles in Flanders, Belgium, and is produced and published by the Ultratop organization. The chart has existed since March 31, 1995...  (Flanders)	36
Canadian Singles Chart Canadian Singles Chart The Canadian Singles Chart is currently compiled by the U.S.-based music sales tracking company, Nielsen SoundScan . The chart is compiled every Wednesday, and is published by Jam! Canoe on Thursdays....	9
Dutch Singles Chart Mega Single Top 100 The Single Top 100 is a Dutch chart, based on official physical single sales and legal downloads and composed by MegaCharts. It is one of the three official charts, the other two being the Dutch Top 40 and the Mega Top 50. The difference is that these charts also include airplay data.The list is...	16
German Singles Chart	40
New Zealand Singles Chart	4
Norwegian Singles Chart VG-lista VG-listen is a Norwegian record chart. It is weekly presented in the newspaper VG and the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation program Topp 20. It is considered the primary Norwegian record chart, charting albums and singles from countries and continent around the world. The data is collected by...	6
Swedish Singles Chart Sverigetopplistan Sverigetopplistan, earlier known as Topplistan and Hitlistan and other names, is since October 2007 the Swedish national record chart, based on sales data from Swedish Recording Industry Association ....	9
Swiss Singles Chart Swiss Music Charts The Swiss Music Charts are Switzerland's main music sales charts. The charts are a record of the highest-selling singles and albums in various genres in Switzerland.The Swiss Charts include:* Singles Top 75...	33
UK Singles Chart UK Singles Chart The UK Singles Chart is compiled by The Official Charts Company on behalf of the British record-industry. The full chart contains the top selling 200 singles in the United Kingdom based upon combined record sales and download numbers, though some media outlets only list the Top 40 or the Top 75 ...	5
U.S. Billboard Hot 100 Billboard Hot 100 The Billboard Hot 100 is the United States music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by Billboard magazine. Chart rankings are based on radio play and sales; the tracking-week for sales begins on Monday and ends on Sunday, while the radio play tracking-week runs from Wednesday...	28
U.S. Billboard Hot Dance Music/Maxi-Singles Sales	6
U.S. Billboard Modern Rock Tracks Modern Rock Tracks Alternative Songs is a music chart in the United States that has appeared in Billboard magazine since September 10, 1988. It lists the 40 most-played songs on modern rock radio stations, most of which are alternative rock songs...	4
U.S. Billboard Rhythmic Top 40	37
U.S. Billboard Top 40 Mainstream	37